Ocean View district, teachers settle on contract

This year's teaching contract at Ocean View School District finally is headed to a vote after the district and union negotiators came to a tentative agreement on March 5.

Two furlough days are scheduled under the tentative 2012-13 and 2013-14 agreement, with an unchanged health benefits package that teachers say is second worst among the county's elementary school districts.

"I think it's the very best settlement that we can get under the circumstances at this time. It is a compromise," Ocean View Teachers Association President Marcy Drum said.

Negotiations began last spring, and teachers have been working under their old contract since July. A state-appointed mediator was called in, but the agreement was reached in an unmediated conference.

Teachers and union representatives met March 4to discuss the contract, and the teachers will vote on ratification this week.

Even if it passes, further negotiations on some parts of the contract, including health benefits, are scheduled to restart May 1, with the furlough days coming later that month – on May 24 and 28 – creating a five-day weekend around Memorial Day, if the agreement is approved by the teachers.

An OVTA statement sent to teachers highlighted the furlough days as a significant point of compromise, down from four days proposed by the district.

Teachers advocate Mònica Mora said the district's original proposal called for six furlough days, in which school is not offered, and questioned the need for furlough days at all when the district has hired new and well-paid administrators in the past few years.

"You don't have the money for the teachers, you don't have the money for your students ... but you do have money to pay two superintendents at one time, you do have money to create a brand new position," Mora said, referring to a three-month paid leave given to former Ocean View chief William Loose in July and the creation of the position of communications director.

Communications Director Roni Ellis referred to California education code requirements that a district needs a superintendent at all times, sometimes requiring interim superintendents.

Turnover in the administration, including a string of five superintendents in eight months (counting current superintendent Gustavo Balderas twice, as he served as a consultant before taking the position), contributed to the long negotiation period, Drum said.

"The teachers feel they really don't know who's running our district, and it contributes to a feeling of instability. We don't really have that trust," she said.

Ellis agreed that trust is "a key factor to any negotiations."

"That's what our goal is now, not only to let the teachers know that we value them tremendously, but we listen to them and we meet their needs," she said.

She called the district's administration one of the leanest in the county and said the communications director position came after "community outcry" during negotiations last year when class sizes increased and staff levels changed.

"The No.1 issue that kept coming up was the lack of communication on our district's part," she said.

Mora said families are paying nearly $1,000 out of pocket per pay period on the basic health benefit program in Ocean View.

"Teachers that are literally two miles away in Huntington Beach City School District, they're paying maybe $300. The disparity is brutal, it hurts," said Mora, who also serves as an advocate in Huntington Beach City and Unified school districts.

Ellis responded by saying the district is trying to catch up with health care costs.

"We do what we can on a regular basis to reassess what we offer, but it all comes out of the same pot – the money we use for salaries, the money we use for benefits," she said. "It's shrinking every year; we're funded less and less."

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